Squat toilets at the ATO
Dear Australian Taxation Office,
This is a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act.
I would like to learn more about the ATO's decision to install some squat toilets at the Box Hill office as reported in the media ( for example at http://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/east/...).
Please send me a copy of all documents which were created in the decision making process, in addition to confirming the total cost of the installation.
Yours faithfully,
Dolores Van Cartier
Dear Ms Van Cartier,
The ATO does not process FOI requests received via righttoknow.org.au.
Please send your FOI request direct to [1][ATO request email], or lodge via
paper form available at
[2]https://www.ato.gov.au/uploadedFiles/Con....
Alternatively, you can contact the ATO on 13 28 69 and ask for Freedom of
Information.
Regards,
FOI team
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[ATO request email]
2. https://www.ato.gov.au/uploadedFiles/Con...
Dear FOI team,
This request was sent to the ATO nominated email address for receiving FOI requests.
The address for response is the address from which this email has been received. You have everything you need to process this request.
In my view there is no valid reason to refuse FOI requests which have been facilitated via the Right To Know website, which as you know, is allowed by the guidelines of the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
If the ATO considers this request does not meet the requirements of the FOI Act, I kindly ask you to clearly detail your reasoning.
Otherwise, I kindly ask you to continue to process this valid request.
To be clear, I repeat my request below:
"Dear Australian Taxation Office,
This is a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act.
I would like to learn more about the ATO's decision to install some squat toilets at the Box Hill office as reported in the media ( for example at http://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/east/....
Please send me a copy of all documents which were created in the decision making process, in addition to confirming the total cost of the installation.
Yours faithfully,
Dolores Van Cartier "
Locutus Sum left an annotation ()
My comment is an addition to the comments by Mr. Fairless. I also make a specific suggestion.
Although the Australian Taxation Office wrote to the applicant to say that the Office would not process the application, something did happen. The thing that happened was that 30 days after the date when the application was lodged, section 15AC(3) of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) had the effect of making a "deemed decision" to refuse the request ... this is unless the Commissioner grants more time.
Because of the effect of the Act, I make the following suggestions to the applicant:
(1) Do not write to the Australian Taxation Office and complain that a decision on your request is "overdue". It is not. A deemed decision was made 30 days after you lodged the application.
(2) Instead, use this Right to Know page (or you can create a new request page) to write exactly the same request to the Australian Taxation Office. If you want to grumble, then you can always say (in the new request email) that you made the same request earlier on this-and-then date.
I make this suggestion because if you only write and complain that your request is "overdue", then after a delay, the Australian Taxation Office might (correctly) write back to you and say, "No it is not". Of course, the purpose of this would be to delay to process your request (because the office will now have suddenly a lot of requests) but it will still have the effect that you must lodge a new request. Therefore, you can lose nothing to use this Right to Know page to make a new request now! It will start the clock again.
Verity Pane left an annotation ()
For the benefit of those who don't wish to click through to the ATO's ridiculous and clunky FOI responses site, when such information could just as easily been provided here on RtK like it is by just about every other agency, the ATO claimed no documents existed regarding the approval of the squat toilet (which is difficult to believe, as money cannot be spent by agencies without some approval process having been documented), but provided one document listing the cost of said squat toilet instead, which cost $6,061
Ben Fairless left an annotation ()
The Information Commissioner has made a formal recommendation to the ATO to start processing to Freedom of Information requests made via Right to Know. More Information on this can be found here: https://www.openaustraliafoundation.org....